179202016-12-09T07:39:01.853Treasury Owners Dump Bonds47569190Daily Spotlight2016-12-09T07:23:44.917NYSEAccording to the U.S Treasury, at the end of 2015, China owned $1.24 trillion of U.S. debt and Japan owned $1.13 trillion. On a percentage basis, the total debt outstanding for the U.S. Treasury was $13.34 trillion, so China owned 9.3% of the debt and Japan owned 8.5%. Other major foreign owners included Ireland, Switzerland, the UK, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. Altogether, foreign owners of U.S. government debt held $6.2 trillion in Treasury securities, or about 47%. That's below the level held by this group in 2014 -- when foreign holders owned $6.134 trillion, or 50% of the $12.36 trillion in U.S. Treasury debt outstanding. So who is the biggest owner? The U.S. Federal Reserve, which owns $2.5 trillion or approximately 19% of the total outstanding U.S. debt. That's up from $500 million that was on the Fed's balance sheet when the central bank launched its first quantitative easing program in 2009. Almost 50% of the Fed's holdings mature by 2019. In the first few weeks since the election, global investors have sold more than $1 trillion in bonds. The Fed's percentage stake in U.S. debt has no doubt increased.